Fri, Jul 18 2008
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Published March 26, 2008 12:51 pm - It seems the longer you look at something, the more tolerant you become of its existence — even if it’s ugly. The landscaping at Interstate 44 and South Range Line Road is a good example of what I’m talking about. This is probably the most important gateway for visitors to the city of Joplin. It should look nice. It doesn’t. Someone, many years ago, decided to improve the appearance of the four-leaf clover by adding pine and other trees in an attempt at landscaping each part of the interchange. Trashy welcome site bites the dust It seems the longer you look at something, the more tolerant you become of its existence — even if it’s ugly.
The landscaping at Interstate 44 and South Range Line Road is a good example of what I’m talking about. This is probably the most important gateway for visitors to the city of Joplin. It should look nice. It doesn’t. Someone, many years ago, decided to improve the appearance of the four-leaf clover by adding pine and other trees in an attempt at landscaping each part of the interchange. It looked good for a while, but it stopped looking good years ago. The idea was to offer a natural touch to a example of modern transportation. It instead has become a place where wind-blown trash accumulates. The Missouri Department of Transportation is clearing out the trees and undergrowth at the interchange, and at every I-44 interchange between the state line with Oklahoma and the Greene County line west of Springfield. You can thank the ice storms for this. When the ice storms hit, limbs from the landscaping fell onto the highway, blocking traffic. On and off ramps also were blocked. You can’t have that happening on an interstate highway. The department is creating 50-foot “clear” zones along the highway so that limbs don’t fall on the driving surface. There is no plan at this time to replace the landscaping with more suitable plantings. As they clear out the trees, MoDOT workers will be picking up the trash. It’s so bad that I suspect they’ll have enough trash to fill a dump truck. Joplin can be such a trashy town, and the evidence suggests things are not getting better in that regard. The spring cleaning is another step forward for South Range Line. A few years ago, in response to complaints from the business community, MoDOT updated the interchange with dramatic new lighting. The city erected one of its colorful welcoming signs after that. This time, we can thank Mother Nature for pushing us in the right direction. Walgreens galore You never know what you’ll learn when you go to church. I attended Easter services with my mother on Sunday, and a reader of this column asked when I was going to write about the new Walgreens drugstore coming to Range Line. I told him I hadn’t heard about that, but I would check into it. Sure enough, a Walgreens is planned for the southeast corner of 20th Street and Range Line. The store will occupy the site of the former Travetti’s Restaurant and the site that is now occupied by the Raco carwash. Ray Alburty, owner of the carwash since 1983, said the deal has been in the works for three years. “It’s going forward, but my God it’s been slow,” he said. There’s also talk of another Walgreens at the northwest corner of West Seventh Street and Maiden Lane. Alburty said it’s hard to say whether the new median in front of the carwash has adversely affected his business. 
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